HIV Patients May Now Get Rid Of Condoms, New Research Suggests

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - NOVEMBER 30: A general view at an AIDS awareness street campaign on November 30, 2005, in Seoul, South Korea. More than 3,600 people in South Korea have become infected with HIV since the first case was reported here 21 years ago. The event was organized to spread awareness ahead of the World AIDS Day on December 1. (Photo : Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A significant number of HIV activists, campaigners and researchers at the highest level have recently been promoting the idea that for those people who are inflicted with the virus and regularly taking their meds are effectively uninfectious. During a conference held last year, the Division head of AIDS at the US National Institutes of Health, Carl Dieffenbach, has revealed that as soon as an HIV patient begins therapy and stays on therapy, he is basically perceived as someone who is not capable of transmitting HIV to a sexual partner. And, while some researchers remain sceptical, in the UK, the message is now being translated into official guidance for doctors that is due to be published within a few months.

HIV Patients On Ditching Condoms

In one of his statements reported by New Scientist, Dieffenbach explains that for an average person, this new reality might come as a bit of a shock, considering the notion about HIV, has the disease really become an incommunicable illness you can't pass on? However, it was further revealed that there has been a dramatic turnaround. During the 80's where HIV was considered a crime until the the development of antiviral drugs that stop HIV from reproducing in the 20th century, which has also been noted as one of the greatest medical success stories of the present time.

Treatment For HIV Patients

Meanwhile, although it was found that the treatment that is currently known cannot eliminate HIV from the body; experts say that the life expectancy of people on therapy is near normal. Another surprising effect brought by these medicines is that they allegedly reduce an infected person's risk of passing on the virus to sexual partners.

So with the question as to whether this keeps the negative partner safe, The JAMA Network reveals that the findings were groundbreaking. The study has found that for as long as an HIV patient regularly stays on medication for six months, and the virus was undetectable, there were no cases of HIV transmission. Ultimately, due to this new thinking, authorities have high hopes that it will somehow reduce fear and stigma.